Technology blog + Jimmy Wales | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog+jimmy-wales
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Tech Weekly podcast: BlackBerry blackout, Siri scrutinisedhttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/audio/2011/oct/19/tech-weekly-blackberry-blackout-siri-audio
Following BlackBerry's service outage last week, RIM's UK managing director Stephen Bates explains what went wrong, and how they're going to put it right. Plus the team test Siri, Apple's new voice control for the iPhone 4S <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/audio/2011/oct/19/tech-weekly-blackberry-blackout-siri-audio">Continue reading...</a>BlackBerryMobile phonesEmailAppleiPhoneVoice recognitionJimmy WalesEntrepreneursTechnologyWed, 19 Oct 2011 06:48:50 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/audio/2011/oct/19/tech-weekly-blackberry-blackout-siri-audioAdrian Wyld/APA BlackBerry user in Canada last week as millions of customers across the world found their services disrupted. Photograph: Adrian Wyld/APPresented by Aleks Krotoski and produced by Scott Cawley2011-10-19T06:48:50ZWikimedia: 'Fox News's campaign against us is nonsense'http://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2010/may/17/wikipedia-jimmy-wales
<p>Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia empire is dealing with an almighty furore in the wake of a series of damaging and particularly zealous stories by Fox News concerning allegations that it is hosting images of child pornography.</p><p>Mike Godwin, general counsel of the Wikimedia Foundation, last night said the idea it is in chaos &quot;is simply nonsense&quot; and described Fox's story as part of its &quot;self-congratulatory anti-porn-on-the-Internet campaign&quot;.<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/paytonc/142997874/"><br /><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/55/142997874_50c40cc81d.jpg" alt="Got that right by Payton Chung." width="460" /></a><br /><em>Photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/paytonc/">Payton Chung</a> on Flickr. <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en">Some rights reserved</a></em></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2010/may/17/wikipedia-jimmy-wales">Continue reading...</a>MediaDigital mediaWikipediaJimmy WalesTechnologyFoxMon, 17 May 2010 10:59:46 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/media/pda/2010/may/17/wikipedia-jimmy-walesJemima Kiss2010-05-17T10:59:46ZJimmy Wales brings the axe down on Wikia Searchhttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/apr/01/wikia-search-dead-wales-admits
The idea of a wikipedia-like search engine where everyone could vote results up and down seemed like a nice idea - but it couldn't stand up to entrenched, rich rivals such as Google. And now it's dead.<p>Wikipedia looks more and more Jimmy Wales's one great success - because his other ideas aren't shining just now. In a <a href="http://blog.jimmywales.com/index.php/archives/2009/03/31/update-on-wikia/">blogpost</a> he has announced that he is closing Wikia Search, which aimed to be a wiki-fied version of, well, a search engine, and compete with Google for all those lovely advertising revenues.</p><p>That's not quite how the blogpost puts it, though. Instead, the title is &quot;doing more of what's working&quot;, and begins &quot;If there is one thing that I've learned in my career, it's to do more of what's working, and less of what's not.&quot;</p><p>&quot;..while I personally believe in the opportunity for free software to make serious inroads into the search space, our project, Wikia Search, has not been enjoying the kind of success that we had hoped.</p><p>In a different economy, we would continue to fund Wikia Search indefinitely. It's something I care about deeply. I will return to again and again in my career to search, either as an investor, a contributor, a donor, or a cheerleader.</p><p>But for now, we will be closing the doors on the Wikia Search project (as of March 31, 2009) and will be re-directing and refocusing resources on other Wikia.com properties, especially on Wikianswers.</p><p>It's important to keep in mind the distinction between the startup company Wikia Inc, with $14m (&pound;7m) of venture capital, and the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation that runs Wikipedia. Wikia was created by several high-level people involved in Wikipedia to commercialise similar concepts. But there is no significant financial connection between the for-profit Wikia and the charity that is the Wikimedia Foundation. However, Wikia benefits enormously from a &quot;halo effect&quot; due to Wikipedia's prominence and name recognition.</p><p>By now it's a standard caution on Wikia Search that it's competing against an incumbent (Google) which is an overwhelming world leader, and very powerful second-tier rivals (Yahoo, Microsoft). With this in mind, it's worth remembering that many other initiatives hyped by Wikia have ended in failure. &quot;OpenServing&quot;, a hosting service where site creators kept advertising revenues, has been <a href="http://www.marsmag.com/?p=760">abandoned</a>. A political website, &quot;<a href="http://www.campaigns.wikia.com/">Campaigns Wikia</a>&quot;, now demonstrates apathy. An effort to develop a &quot;Blogger's Code Of Conduct&quot; died as soon as the corresponding story faded away (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/apr/19/blogging.comment">Accusations of sex and violence were bound to grab the headlines</a>, Guardian April 2007).</p><p>One of the drivers of Wikipedia is that skill at writing passable encyclopedia articles is common, and not restricted to a tiny academic elite. And people can be induced to work for free with the thought that they are then like those academics. But that trick doesn't work for search engines, as expertise at writing a decent search engine is rare. The problems Wikipedia has, with incentives for people to slant its articles, pale in comparison to the financial rewards that can accrue to a site which has the top spot in a search on a lucrative term. Compare the amount of money devoted to search engine optimisation with the much smaller field of public relations with Wikipedia.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/apr/01/wikia-search-dead-wales-admits">Continue reading...</a>WikipediaTechnologySearch enginesInternetJimmy WalesWed, 01 Apr 2009 16:28:09 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/apr/01/wikia-search-dead-wales-admitsCharles Arthur2009-04-01T16:28:09ZJimmy Wales in drive-by shooting of Wikipediahttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/feb/09/wikipedia-wales-deletion-row
The abrupt deletion of a new article about the journalist Giles Hattersley on Wikipedia by Jimmy Wales has left other editors astonished<p>It seems there are now two memes about the modern net that are gradually becoming embedded in the public consciousness: (a) Twitter is a waste of time (thanks, Evening Standard, Daily Mail, etc - though of course Charlie Brooker would disagree; his bubble wrap description certainly feels apt) and (b) Wikipedia is always wrong in some way or other.</p><p>Thus Giles Hattersley of the Sunday Times yesterday regaled us with some of the second, claiming in an otherwise interesting piece that Wikipedia mistakenly said he was the son of Roy Hattersley: </p><p>But while howlers such as Kennedy's death are easily spotted, what of the reams of erroneous detail that the site presents as fact? My entry features at least two errors, one libellous (unless my mother has been keeping a dark secret, I am not Roy Hattersley's son). </p><p>I have temporarily deleted this article, and kindly request that no one restore it until we've sorted out all the facts. Giano has been blocked for 24 hours by me for incivility related to this entry. Jay and I are already aware of the situation and I am reaching out to the newspaper for further clarification.</p><p>&quot;This nonsense would have been 100% prevented by flagged revisions... This was a breaking news story and we want people to be able to participate [but] we have a tool available now that is consistent with higher quality.&quot;</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/feb/09/wikipedia-wales-deletion-row">Continue reading...</a>TechnologyWikipediaInternetJimmy WalesMon, 09 Feb 2009 11:10:35 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/feb/09/wikipedia-wales-deletion-rowCharles Arthur2009-02-09T11:10:35Z'Wikipedia bans Qatar'... or does it?http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2007/jan/02/wikipediabans
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has gone on the warpath over what he calls a 'bullshit' story... but what's the truth behind the banning of Qatar?<p>Stories fly around the web with such alacrity that reeling them in again is a daunting task.</p><p>That seems to be at least part of what's gone on with a tale floating around that Wikipedia had banned the entire country of Qatar from making edits to the site. It's been picked up by <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/01/wikipedia-bans-qatar/">Techcrunch</a> and <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/01/01/1248251.shtml">Slashdot</a> among others, leading to this from Mike Arrington:</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2007/jan/02/wikipediabans">Continue reading...</a>InternetTechnologyJimmy WalesTue, 02 Jan 2007 11:36:26 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2007/jan/02/wikipediabansBobbie Johnson, technology correspondent2007-01-02T11:36:26ZQ&amp;A with Jimmy Wales on Search Wikiahttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/dec/30/qawithjimmyw
<p>Danny Sullivan has a little interview at <a href="http://searchengineland.com/061229-193718.php">Search Engine Land</a>. Wales says:</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/dec/30/qawithjimmyw">Continue reading...</a>Search enginesInternetTechnologyJimmy WalesSat, 30 Dec 2006 11:47:30 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/dec/30/qawithjimmywJack Schofield2006-12-30T11:47:30ZWikipedia backer plans search engine to fight Googlehttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/dec/24/wikipediaplans
<p>&quot;Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, is set to launch an internet search engine with amazon.com that he hopes will become a rival to Google and Yahoo!,&quot; according to <a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2517026,00.html">The Times</a> (of London).</p><p>Amazon has invested in Wikia and the story says &quot;it is understood that amazon has also collaborated with Mr Wales on the search engine project and is expected to lend its support to the venture in the future.&quot;</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/dec/24/wikipediaplans">Continue reading...</a>GoogleSearch enginesInternetTechnologyJimmy WalesSun, 24 Dec 2006 13:44:53 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/dec/24/wikipediaplansJack Schofield2006-12-24T13:44:53ZWales: let's make Wikipedia more accuratehttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/aug/06/walesletsmake
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has told his troops that quality, not quantity is what the user-written encyclopedia should be focusing on.<p>Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has made an appeal to the site's users to start concentrating on quality, not quantity. According to <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71535-0.html?tw=wn_index_11">the Associated Press</a>:</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/aug/06/walesletsmake">Continue reading...</a>InternetTechnologyJimmy WalesSun, 06 Aug 2006 15:14:29 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2006/aug/06/walesletsmakeBobbie Johnson, technology correspondent2006-08-06T15:14:29Z'Macromedia sold; would have finished quicker had lawyers skipped Flash intro'. We review 2005...http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/dec/22/macromediasold
<p>Today's print section has <a href="http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,16376,1671946,00.html">our own review of the year</a>, written by a cast of thousands (well, more than two). We've tried to give it our own spin, so here are a few examples....</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/dec/22/macromediasold">Continue reading...</a>TechnologyOracleIntelJimmy WalesThu, 22 Dec 2005 09:15:15 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/dec/22/macromediasoldCharles Arthur2005-12-22T09:15:15ZWikipedia founder edits own biohttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/dec/20/wikipediafound
<p>Yesterday, blogger Rogers Cadenhead revealed in <a href="http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2828">Wikipedia Founder Looks Out for Number 1</a> that &quot;Another person obsessively monitoring his own biography is Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who has edited it frequently, removing references to a credited 'co-founder' of the encyclopedia and obscuring the nature of a pornographic web site he once published.&quot;</p><p>The story has now been taken up by <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69880,00.html">Wired News</a>, which reports that &quot;Wales acknowledged he's made changes to his bio, but said the edits were made to correct factual errors and provide a more rounded version of events.&quot;</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/dec/20/wikipediafound">Continue reading...</a>InternetDigital mediaTechnologyJimmy WalesTue, 20 Dec 2005 14:55:06 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/dec/20/wikipediafoundJack Schofield2005-12-20T14:55:06ZWikipedia-founder Jimmy Wales does Q&amp;Ahttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/oct/01/wikipediafounde
<p>C-Span's Q&amp;A has done an interesting <a href="http://www.q-and-a.org/Program/?ProgramID=1042">interview with Jimmy Wales</a>. You can view the program or read a transcript.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/oct/01/wikipediafounde">Continue reading...</a>InternetTechnologyJimmy WalesSat, 01 Oct 2005 15:07:18 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/oct/01/wikipediafoundeJack Schofield2005-10-01T15:07:18ZWikimedia spreads its wingshttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/aug/05/wikimediasprea
<p><img height="200" width="400" src="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/online/archives/jimmywales1.jpg" alt="jimmywales1.jpg" /><span class="caption">Free your mind: Wikimedia guru Jimmy Wales</span></p><p>Wikimedia, the charitable foundation behind <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a>, announced today that it was spreading its open, editable wings even further, <em>writes Sean Dodson</em>. Not content with an ever-expanding encyclopedia (which includes over 22 million entries in over 200 languages, and counting) a dictionary and a nascent news service, the wiki ethic will be extended into a number of new areas, including book publishing, according to the movement's founder, Jimmy Wales.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/aug/05/wikimediasprea">Continue reading...</a>InternetTechnologyJimmy WalesFri, 05 Aug 2005 16:28:12 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2005/aug/05/wikimediaspreaBobbie Johnson, technology correspondent2005-08-05T16:28:12Z